Four baby deaths in unlicensed daycare in seven months seems high, but no one at Queen’s Park knows for sure because daycare deaths aren't tracked.

The death of a baby at an unregulated daycare in a northwest Toronto apartment is the latest of four similar deaths in the last seven months. Neither the provincial coroner nor Education ministry keep track of how often babies die in unregulated child care in Ontario.

No one at Queen’s Park is keeping track of how often babies die in unregulated child care in Ontario.

Four babies have died in seven months in unregulated home daycares in the Toronto area, but neither the provincial coroner’s office nor the provincial Education ministry could say Thursday if this is unusual.

For investigative reasons, the exact cause of death in that case has been kept secret.

The coroner’s office investigates all child deaths that are not due to natural causes as well as any death of a child involved with Children’s Aid.

But coroner’s reports have no specific coding that allows the office to track how often, or under what circumstances, children die in daycare, said Dr. Roger Skinner, regional supervising coroner for the Toronto West region.

“Certainly the reports of four deaths in relatively quick succession in an unlicensed daycare setting is of concern,” he said Thursday.

“In order to comment on a trend, we’ve got to know what the history has been and I can’t tell you that right now,” he added. “It’s certainly something we have a heightened awareness of and that we’re following. But we’re not, at this point, collecting the data on it.”

Given the public interest over the past year, the office might consider tracking daycare deaths in the future, Skinner said.

Currently, the coroner reports deaths in both licensed and unlicensed care to the Education ministry, which is responsible for child care.

“It would be our practice either directly or through the police to notify the respective ministry,” Skinner said.

Education Minister Liz Sandals said the government treats child deaths “extremely seriously.” But ministry staff were unable to say whether the recent tragedies are an anomaly.

“As part of our plan to modernize the child care system, we will continue to work on better interagency cooperation including the greater exchange of information between agencies like the Coroner’s Office, Public Health and the Ministry of Education regarding serious incidents in a child care setting,” Sandals said in a statement Thursday night.

“We are committed to strengthening oversight and safety and we are making every effort to pass the important child care modernization legislation that is currently before the legislature,” she said. “We look forward to the support of all members to get this legislation passed.”

The report doesn’t list cause of death by region, but provincewide: 42 per cent died of natural causes, 12 per cent died in accidents, 10 per cent were homicides and 36 per cent remain undetermined.

Last July, 2-year-old Allison Tucker drowned in her babysitter’s condo. Maria Sosa, 34, was charged with manslaughter in January.

Less than a week after Allison’s death, Eva Ravikovich, also 2, died in an unlicensed Vaughan daycare where police found 27 kids and public health officials discovered potentially deadly listeria bacteria in the kitchen.

In November, 9-month-old Aspen Moore died in an unregulated Markham home daycare.

In London, Premier Kathleen Wynne called the death “a tragic, tragic situation.”

“Obviously we have to do everything within our power to make sure this type of thing doesn’t happen,” she said.

At Queen’s Park, Sandals said the government cannot ban unlicensed home daycares.

“Working moms and dads have a lot of different needs depending on their schedule and we can’t take away from parents their right to choose the thing that makes sense. And in a lot of cases what makes sense is (unlicensed) home child care.”

There are only enough licensed daycare spaces for about 22 per cent of the province’s children under age 5, leaving the vast majority to find an alternative. This has spawned thousands of unregulated home daycares, where the only rule limits the number of children in care to five, in stark contrast to licensed daycares which must follow strict health, safety and programming rules and are inspected annually.

The Liberals’ Child Care Modernization Act, introduced last December, would reduce the number of children allowed in unlicensed care, stiffen fines for those caring for too many kids and give ministry officials new powers to immediately shut down violators.

It is the first substantive change to daycare legislation in the province since 1983. But the proposed law, which has only passed first reading in the legislature and is still being debated, likely would die on the order paper if an election were called this spring.

NDP children and youth services critic Monique Taylor said the Liberal legislation wouldn’t do enough to protect Ontario’s youth. She called for the creation of a public registry of all unlicensed daycares in the province that parents could access online.

“One death is too many. Four deaths in less than a year is a crisis for families in this province,” Taylor said during question period. “How many families will have to be failed before this government gets it right?”

Andrea Calver of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care supports the proposed daycare legislation. But she said the province must spend more money on licensed care.

“It’s really about the budget,” she said. “The problem of unlicensed child care can’t be solved without a massive investment in more licensed, affordable child care so that parents really have some choice and children really have some quality.”

With files from Rob Ferguson

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